Introducing…Alfie David Jones

Because of my OCD tendencies, and my need to post all my pregnancy and birth posts before anything else, it has taken me 6 months to introduce my beautiful baby boy (warning, this post is going to be gushing and picture heavy!)

So much has happened to us in the past 6/7 months. I left work to go on maternity leave, waited 11 days past my due date for my baby to arrive, had a son rather than the daughter I’d expected, ended up with an emergency caesarean which I never even considered would happen to me, and that was all before the baby was even here!

Newborn Alfie

So, how has Alfie changed my life? I get a lot less sleep, my phone is almost at full capacity with the amount of photos I take, and my hair has been chopped into the standard “mum bob”.

I also love him like I never knew was possible, the way he giggles when I blow raspberries on his belly, the way he smiles in his sleep, the way he looks up at me when he’s feeding all make me feel something I’ve never felt possible, in a way that can’t be described.

We’ve celebrated many occasions since Alfie’s birth, and made some lovely new friends.

Newborn shoot, weddings and a Christening!

We’ve been to two weddings (the first when he was just 3 weeks old!), one Christening of which we were godparents, a (disastrous) newborn photo shoot, Alfie’s watched his first rugby world cup with Daddy, went for his first swim, Alfie’s own christening (which he screamed during the whole service!) and our first Christmas as a family of three.

Rugby, Alfie’s christening, swim time and leaving treats for Father Christmas

We’ve joined two lovely baby groups – Sing and Sign, which we started when Alfie was almost 12 weeks old, and is so much fun, and Hartbeeps, which we have only just started but I know is going to be brilliant.

Graduating at Sing and Sign and our first session at Hartbeeps

I’ve learnt to breastfeed and found the experience amazing, I’ve learnt to use cloth nappies (not something I’d ever thought I’d do), we co-slept for the first 8 weeks of Alfie’s life (mainly because he grew out of his moses basket in a week!) and I’ve learnt all about babywearing and love it so much!

Bit of a hippie mum!

We’ve seen Alfie change so much in the past 6 months! Being such a big baby, we never felt like he was the fragile, tiny newborn that can be so scary to look after, but looking back at photos we forget how small he actually was! He’s learnt to smile, to recognise faces, he was sitting up on his own by 4 months, he can grasp his toys, and he’s got a great, powerful set of lungs on him (not that he uses them that often, thankfully). We’ve just started our Baby-Led Weaning journey, which is exciting, scary, and very, very messy!

Our growing boy

Alfie has changed our lives immensely, but he’s also slotted into our lives like he’s always been there. He hasn’t stopped us from living, from going out, from doing things we want to do. Ok, so we might go to the cinema less, eat out less, spend more money on baby clothes than takeaways these days, but none of that matters.

Our friends love Alfie more than we could have asked them to. He has four lovely godparents, and numerous honouree aunty and uncles, as well as his many real aunts and uncles. He has 5 cousins, including twin cousins who were born just 4 days before him.

My house is a lot messier, my eyes a lot baggier and my clothes all breastfeeding friendly. My life has changed, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve seen what an amazing father my husband is. He looked after both of us so well after my caesarean. It was really important to me to breastfeed, and he made it so much easier for me by letting me have that time with my son to learn this new skill and took care of looking after the house and making sure I was fed and watered (and bathed for those first few days when it was difficult to get in and out of the shower). I was able to concentrate on feeding our son and getting our breastfeeding journey off to an easy start (although he’s not stupid, he knew if I breastfed he’d get out of the night feeds!) The way he interacts with Alfie is sometimes heart-stopping. When he comes in from work, Alfie immediately recognises him and gives him the biggest smile! He’s started to say ‘Da-da’ – whether he’s just babbling or he actually knows who is Daddy is, we’re not sure yet, but it certainly is very cute (and very handy when he needs a nappy change “You want Da-da to do it?!)

Daddy and Alfie

The past 6 months have been incredible, and I’m lucky that I still have another 5 months off work to watch our baby boy grow up. We’ll see him learn to crawl and possibly walk (hopefully not for a while yet, as our lives really will become hectic then!). We’ll see him learn new words and skills, and make new friends. I’m hoping to continue to breastfeed until Alfie is at least one, maybe beyond. I didn’t see us going past 6 months, so every extra day now is a bonus.

3 Comments

Are you trying to turn me into a crying mess with your posts?! As it’s well on its way to working!! ? Lovely photos, the one of his graduation from Sing and Sign is adorable! Happy half birthday, Alfie! Xxx

Baby Lighty’s birthday one is already in draft form in my head, but I hadn’t considered the problem of photo overload…!! May need to start whittling them down now! I love your use of collages by the way, great way of including lots of pics xxx

Hi! fellow breastfeeding, cloth bumming, babywearing blogging mummy here too! If your anything like me, becoming a mummy has totally changed me as person, I never saw myself feeding past a year or washing poo-ey nappies! But its great right? Loved this post, I now how quickly those six months go. My girl is ten months so this is all too familiar. The graduation from sing sign is the cutest thing ever, I need to go to a class that has baby graduation robes!

Thank you so much for sharing, I can’t wait to read more all about your adventures

The Face Behind The Blog

Hello, I'm Abi and I am the face behind the blog, Something About Baby. This is my space where I write all about being mum to Alfie, who was born in July 2015, and wife to Craig. Check out my About Me section to find out more.